


His Bad Penny

by sabershadowkat



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-27
Updated: 2015-07-27
Packaged: 2018-04-11 11:04:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4433120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sabershadowkat/pseuds/sabershadowkat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What would it be like if Spike really was a father?<br/>Post Doomed</p>
            </blockquote>





	His Bad Penny

**Prologue**   
  


Spike rolled his eyes at the conversation going on in front of him. It was getting harder for him to curb the impulse to jump in and tell the twits they were all pathetic idiots. If the upcoming fight against a monolithicus demon wasn't going to be a real bloodbath -- his favorite type of fight -- he wouldn't be there at all. As it was, because Riley the wonder-pug was with them, he had to play Xander's hick friend again so the soldier boy wouldn't put two and two together and get Hostile 17.   
  


"Riley, how long have you been doing this, huh?" Buffy asked.   
  


"After training-" Riley began, only to be cut off by her.   
  


"I've been doing this since I was fifteen, remember? _Fifteen_ ," Buffy said.   
  


"And we've been helping since we were sixteen," Xander added. "And I'm going to be in therapy for eternity because of it."   
  


"Lots of evil slayed by us Slayerettes," Willow chimed in.   
  


"I think we know what we're doing, and I'm getting sick of telling you the same thing every time we go to kill the baddie," Buffy finished.   
  


"I just don't want you to get hurt," Riley said, looking directly at Buffy.   
  


Spike was going to heave.   
  


"I don't want any of you to get hurt," Riley continued. "I've had specific training-"   
  


"Papa!"   
  


Everyone stopped talking at the child's voice coming from behind them, each of them immediately tensing in preparedness for an attack.   
  


"Papa! Wait!"   
  


They turned and saw a little Hispanic girl with short black hair in a blue plaid skirt, navy sweater, and navy knee-highs running straight towards them. Buffy, Riley, Willow and Xander all stared in shock when Spike dropped down to his knees and engulfed the girl in his arms.   
  


"Penny, what are you doing here?" Spike said with surprise in his voice, holding the tiny girl tight.   
  


"I knew you weren't dead," Penny said, her small arms wrapped around his neck. "I just knew it."   
  


Spike closed his eyes and inhaled the sweet smell of soap and baby powder. Penny's little heart was pounding as he hugged her close. Oh hell, he thought. He hadn't realized how much he really missed her.   
  


"Uh, is there something you want to share with the class?" Buffy said.   
  


Spike stood, picking the little girl up as he did. She lay her head on his shoulder and he could feel her warm breath against his neck, reminding him of the hundreds of times he'd held her this way before. He looked at the three completely shocked faces and chuckled.   
  


"I'd like you to meet Penny," he said, then gave them a smile. "My daughter."   
  


"Your what?" Buffy stared at him with incredulity.   
  


"You heard me," Spike said.   
  


"But how can a va-" Xander began.   
  


"Xander," Willow hissed in warning.   
  


"-sectomized guy have a daughter?" the brunette finished.   
  


"Guess you'll never know," Spike taunted. He turned his back to the other four and glanced around. Spotting a bench, he headed over to it and sat down, Penny still in his arms.   
  


"Now, Miss Bad Penny Angelus, tell me why you're not in school where you belong," he said, running his hand lightly up and down his daughter's back.   
  


"Because I wanted to find you," Penny replied. "You told me the only person I can trust is myself, and when Sister Mary Margaret said you died, I knew it wasn't the truth."   
  


It was almost the truth, Spike thought, remembering when he'd called the boarding school with the "official" notification of his death. It had been just before he'd tried to stake himself, and he'd wanted to make sure his little girl would be taken care of after he was dust. Once he'd found out he could still kill demons -- beggers couldn't be chosers -- and he decided to stay alive, as it were, he chose not to tell the school it had been a mistake, thinking it would be better for her. He hadn't seen, written or spoken to Penny since the day before he'd returned to Sunnydale and had gotten captured by the Initiative, way back in November.   
  


Spike ignored Willow and Buffy, who had moved to stand near the bench he was sitting on with Penny. "How did you know where to find me?" he asked his little girl.   
  


"I called Granpoof," Penny answered.   
  


"You didn't," Spike said with a groan.   
  


"She did," Angel said from behind the younger vampire. Spike chuckled softly at the shock and pain that he saw flash across the Slayer's face.   
  


"Buffy," Angel greeted quietly.   
  


"Angel," Buffy said, equally as soft.   
  


"I think I'm going to heave," Penny said loudly, sitting up.   
  


Spike laughed and kissed her cheek. "That's my girl."   
  


"How?" Willow asked, sitting down on the edge of the bench. "I mean, you can't...you know, make children, right? And she doesn't look like Drusilla. Unless you cheated on her." The redhead gasped, then glared angrily at the blond vampire. "Shame on you, Spike. Cheating is-is-is bad and-and wrong and just plain mean."   
  


"Angel," Xander greeted with no inflection as he and Riley joined the group. "Why are you here?"   
  


"Is everything okay?" Riley asked, hiding the stun gun he had in his hands behind his back. "We do need to go and...do that thing."   
  


"Thing?" Angel said.   
  


Buffy gestured. "The usual."   
  


"Do you need any help?" Angel asked with concern.   
  


"No," Buffy replied shortly.   
  


Spike could imagine the pain that Buffy's answer caused his Sire, and he chuckled again. "As enjoyable as it is hearing your two hearts being torn to shreds," he said, rising to his feet and setting his daughter on hers. "Bad Penny and I are leaving."   
  


Angel's hand on his shoulder stopped him. "Not until I get some answers, Spike."   
  


"What makes you think I'm going to talk to you?" Spike said to the older vampire.   
  


"Because I said so," Angel replied in a hard tone.   
  


Penny giggled. "Papa doesn't listen to anyone by himself, Granpoof," she said to Angel.   
  


"That's right, I don't," Spike agreed. He looked over at Buffy. "Don't you have something to kill?"   
  


"He's right, come on guys," Buffy said, turning and walking purposely away, Riley trotting quickly after her.   
  


"Angel, it's always not a pleasure," Xander said before following.   
  


"You're not off the hook, buster," Willow said sternly to Spike. She looked up at Angel. "Bye Angel. It was nice to see you again."   
  


Angel watched after the retreating group, then glared down at the blond vampire. "I'm not through with you yet," he said. Then he disappeared back into the shadows, undoubtedly going to help the others.   
  


Spike glanced down at Penny when everyone was out of sight and sighed. "You ruined a perfectly good night of blood and violence, did you know that?"   
  


"Papa, you say that every time I see you," Penny replied with a giggle. Spike scowled at her and she giggled some more.   
  


"I should have eaten you when I had the chance," Spike told her. In response, she linked her hand with his and smiled up at him, her teeth bright white against her darker skin. "Come on, moppet. You an' I have some catching up to do after I call the school and let them know where you are."   
  


"Sister Louisa is going to be mad," Penny told him.   
  


"And what makes you think that I'm not mad, too?" he said.   
  


"You didn't go mean face and growl at me," she informed him with child-like authority.   
  


Spike shook his head and began walking with her to Giles's house. He didn't have a telephone, or a bathroom -- or food, for that matter -- at his place, and he knew Penny would be needing both soon. "Remind me why I made you my daughter again?"   
  


"Because I'm your Bad Penny, Papa," Penny said by rote. "No matter how many times you tried to get rid of me, I kept coming back."   
  
  
  


**Part One**   
  


_December, 1998_   
  


Spike heard the tiny heartbeat before he saw the equally tiny girl standing in the doorway of his current home. Her scraggly black hair hung around her dark, dirty face, and she peered at him with her almost-black eyes between the matted strands. She was clutching a ratty old stuffed elephant by the ear and her faded flowered dress was threadbare, covering her distended stomach but not her scraped up knees.   
  


"What do you want?" Spike snapped at her. She flinched but didn't move.   
  


Irritated, the blond vampire rose to his feet, his human mask slipping away, and he growled loudly at her.   
  


She turned and ran out the doorway.   
  


Growling again, Spike raised the bottle in his hand to his lips and drank steadily. He then staggered over to the old double mattress on the floor in the corner of the dilapidated apartment he'd made as his home in a condemned section of Los Angeles. He dropped the bottle to the floor at the same time he dropped down onto his bed. Throwing an arm over his eyes, he said his daily curses on those he hated, including the Fungus Demon whom Drusilla chose to be with over him despite his best torturing of her, before passing out for the day.   
  


When he woke up, the little girl was in his doorway again.   
  


"What?!" Spike snarled at her. She didn't answer. He grabbed the bottle on the floor next to the mattress and hurled it at her. It broke on the doorjamb where her head had been before she'd run back out for the second time.   
  


He got up, went out and hunted, and when he came back he saw her at the end of the hallway. He slipped into game face, growled at her, and she turned and ran out of sight around a corner.   
  


A few hours and bottles of alcohol later, he saw her crouched by his doorway, peering around the doorjamb at him, elephant clutched in her hand.   
  


"Will you go away?!" Spike yelled. She did, but she came back again.   
  


And again.   
  


And again.   
  


And again.   
  


"That's it," Spike snapped, darting after the little girl who kept returning to his doorway. He grabbed her up under the arms and shook her. "Why are you always here, you bloody little chit?"   
  


She didn't answer him. She just looked at him with wide eyes through her matted hair.   
  


"This is the last time I'm going to tell you to leave me the hell alone," Spike told her in a hard voice. "You come back again and I'm going to kill you, understand?"   
  


He shook her one more time for good measure, set her on her feet, and she ran away.   
  


But she returned the next day.   
  


"Cor, you're like a bad penny," Spike said upon seeing the tiny Hispanic girl peeking around the corner of his doorjamb. "You just won't go away, will you?"   
  


His fangs descended and she disappeared, but this time he chased after her. He was going to get rid of this annoyance once and for all.   
  


Her little bare feet thumped on the rickety, wooden stairwell as she flew down them, Spike not far behind. Through his yellow eyes, he saw her exit onto the next floor and into one of the abandoned, doorless apartments on that level. He charged after her and slammed into an invisible barrier blocking his entrance.   
  


He smacked it with his palms, snarling loudly. "Damn it!"   
  


Spike scanned the area he could see from the doorway, and found the little girl watching him from behind the corner of a old, beat-up couch. Then he saw a pair of legs behind her on the floor and it broke through his anger.   
  


"Who's that?" he asked, pointing as best he could to behind her. "Is that your mum?"   
  


The little girl nodded, the stuffed elephant hugged to her chest.   
  


"Is she breathin'?"   
  


She shook her head no.   
  


Spike looked at the little girl for a few moments, then turned and made his way back up to his home.

She peeked around his doorjamb two hours later.   
  


After that, he tried his best to ignore her. He hunted, he drank and he slept all the while she hovered in the doorway, watching him with her dirty face and her near-black eyes. Every time he growled at her in game face, she'd run away, but she'd always return within a few hours.   
  


"Do you have a name?" Spike suddenly asked on one of his more sober nights. He looked over at the girl in the doorway from his bed. "Or should I just call you Bad Penny because I can't get rid of you?"   
  


She didn't answer.   
  


Spike sighed. "Fine. Bad Penny it is." He picked up a new, unopened bottle of alcohol beside the mattress and looked through the glass at the amber liquid. "Don't know why I'm even talkin' to you. I should just eat you."   
  


But he didn't.   
  


"You know what I don't get, Bad Penny?" Spike said several weeks later. "I don't get why no one's come to take you away. Don't you have any other family?"   
  


"No."   
  


Spike stared at the little girl a moment, then threw his hands in the air. "Hallelujah, it's a miracle! She speaks!" She giggled quietly. He walked over to her and crouched down in front of her in the doorway. "So, Penny, any great words of wisdom you'd like to pass on to Papa Spike?"   
  


"I'm hungry," she replied shyly.   
  


"You're hungry?" Spike said with a fake gasp. "Oh no. Whatever shall we do?"   
  


She looked at him through her tangled, dirty hair, her dark eyes hopeful and needy.   
  


She looked at him just like Dru used to.   
  


*****   
  


Spike knocked on Giles's door. "Now, be on your worst behavior, luv," he told Penny. "Make Papa proud."   
  


"Sister Louisa told me I was suppose to be a good girl or I wouldn't get into heaven," Penny said.   
  


"Do you want to get into heaven?" Spike asked, looking down at her.   
  


"No, I'm going to hell with you," Penny replied.   
  


The blond vampire was laughing as the ex-Watcher opened his door. "Oh hello, Spike and, uh..."   
  


"Penny," Spike supplied.   
  


"And-and Penny," Giles said. "I, er, thought you were helping Buffy."   
  


"Change of plans," Spike said. "I need to use your telephone."   
  


"Oh, yes, very well," Giles said, stepping aside to let them enter.   
  


Penny whooped and ran into Giles's home, immediately jumping up onto the couch and bouncing on the cushions. Giles stared at the girl in horror, and when he looked at Spike, the vampire gave him a grin and a shrug. "Kids."   
  


Spike watched Penny out of the corner of his eye as he went over to the phone. She began picking everything up that she saw, sending Giles's scurrying after her and removing things from her hands. He couldn't help the large smile that grew out of his grin.   
  


"That's an antique...," Giles gasped, taking the small statuette away from Penny. He set it down only to have to run after her again as she started for his weapons box.   
  


"Our Lady of Perpetual Help," a pleasant voice said on the other end of the phone line.   
  


"Sister Louisa, please," Spike said into the receiver. "It's an emergency."   
  


"One moment."   
  


"Wait, don't touch," Giles winced as a several rare books fell off the old shelf to the ground, "that."   
  


"Sister Louisa," a matronly woman said in Spike's ear.   
  


"Sister, this is Mr. Angelus, I heard you think that I'm dead," Spike said into the phone. "Well, I'm not."   
  


"Mr. Angelus," Sister Louisa gasped. "Good heavens."   
  


"I just wanted to let you know that Penny's here with me," he said. "And what kind of school are you running anyway? I sent my little girl there because it's the best and the safest in the county, and she turns up here in Sunnydale. You nuns probably didn't even know she was gone."   
  


"Actually, Mr. Angelus, Penny had permission to leave campus for the weekend with the man you named as her guardian when you enrolled her at Our Lady," Sister Louisa said. Spike heard some papers shuffling. "I believe he is your brother. A Mr. Angel Angelus."   
  


"Right. Well, okay then," Spike said, a bit chagrined. "Er, I guess goodbye. Change your records to say I'm not dead, and I'll bring 'er back on Sunday night, eh?"   
  


"We'll look forward to seeing you again, Mr. Angelus," Sister Louisa said. "And I shall thank the Lord that the news of your demise was a mistake."   
  


"You do that," Spike said, then hung up the phone. He turned in time to see the ex-Watcher whip off his glasses.   
  


"Will you please sit down?!" Giles snapped at Penny.   
  


"Hey now, you don't talk to her like that." Spike walked over to where Penny was toying with a deck of tarot cards and hoisted her up over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.   
  


"Papa!" Penny squealed with laughter. Spike danced his fingers along her ribs as he carried her over to the couch. "Papa, stop it, that tickles!"   
  


"Oh it does, does it?" Spike asked, tossing his little girl down onto the cushions on her back. "Then what does this do?"   
  


Penny squealed even louder when he began tickling her in earnest. "Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop," she said between laughs.   
  


"What do you say?" he said with a grin.   
  


"Stop or I'll rip your bloody guts out!" Penny yelled.   
  


Spike sat on the edge of the couch and scooped her onto his lap, pecking her on the forehead. "Bloody hell, sweeting, I missed you," he said before pulling her into another hug.   
  


"I missed you too, Papa," Penny said, her small hand clutching the front of his tee.   
  


"And I've seemed to have missed something entirely," Giles said, staring at the two of them with a befuddled expression on his face.   
  


"Papa does that to people," Penny said to Giles. "He's a complex conundrum."   
  


"Cor, where'd you learn such big words like that?" Spike asked, pushing Penny back slightly so he could see her eyes.   
  


"At school," she replied. "I'm in Super-Achievers. Sister Teresa gave me a long, long, loooooong test and told me that I had a high I.Q. Then Sister Louisa it was no wonder I was so big for my britches."   
  


"Well, I'm proud of you, baby girl," Spike said.   
  


"Papa, I'm seven years old," Penny told him in a snooty voice. "Stop calling me a baby girl or else."   
  


"You wouldn't be threatenin' your old man now, would you?"   
  


"And if I was?"   
  


"Bully for you," Spike said with a smile. "I see that the nuns didn't smack all that sass out of you with their rulers." Giles cleared his throat and Spike looked up. "Oh yeah, right, you're here."   
  


"Of course I'm here," Giles said with exasperation. "This is my house."   
  


"There's no need to be rude," Spike said, settling Penny back against his chest again.   
  


Giles pinched the bridge of his nose in obvious frustration. He then slid his glasses back on and sat down in the chair beside the couch. "Let's start at the beginning, shall we?" he said with strained patience. "Why is it you are here instead of with the others?"   
  


"Peaches is here," Spike said. "And I wasn't about to take Penny into a bloody fight."   
  


"And this is Penny," Giles said, looking at the little girl. Penny waved her fingers at Giles. "Where are her parents?"   
  


"I'm her parents," Spike said.   
  


Giles stared at him as if he'd sprouted wings. "Pardon? I don't think I-I, er, heard you correctly. Did you say _you_ are her parents?"   
  


"Damn straight," Spike replied. He absently rubbed his little girl's back.   
  


"And you expect me to believe that?"   
  


Spike scowled at the ex-Watcher. "Why the hell would I lie about something like this?"   
  


Giles focused on Penny. "Penny, do you know your parents names and phone number?"   
  


"Of course," Penny said. "But Papa doesn't have a phone number because he thinks phones are 'bloody well annoying.'"   
  


"What is your father's name?" Giles prompted.   
  


"William Spike Angelus," Penny replied immediately, snuggling back against Spike.   
  


"Told you," Spike said, curbing the impulse to add 'nyah-nyah.'   
  


"What about your mother?"   
  


"She's dead," Penny answered matter-of-factly.   
  


Giles glared at Spike. "I take it you had something to do with that."   
  


"No," Spike said shortly. "Penny's mum was already a corpse when I met her."   
  


"Mama took too much medicine and she went to sleep and never woke up again," Penny said. "Where's your bathroom?"   
  


Giles blinked at the abrupt question. "Er..."   
  


"It's down that hall to your left," Spike supplied, pointing towards the hall. Penny climbed off his lap and walked quickly in that direction. He watched her progress until she disappeared from sight, then rolled his eyes when he caught Giles's look.   
  


"Is it that soddin' difficult to believe I'm her father?" he said.   
  


"In a word - yes."   
  


"Well, I am," Spike told Giles firmly. "And I'm a bloody good one, too."   
  
  
  


**Part Two**   
  


_May 1999_   
  


"Mister, I can't find my Papa, can you help me?" Penny said, looking up hopefully at the well-dressed man in front of her.   
  


"Well, that's not a good thing, little lady," the man said. "Why don't we go in that store up ahead and see what we can do to find him?"   
  


Penny accepted the man's hand and walked with him up the street. When they came abreast of the alley between the stores, she tugged on his hand. "I think I see my Papa," she said, trying to pull him down the alley.   
  


"I don't think we should go down here at this time of night," the man said, reluctantly allowing himself to be pulled along.   
  


"Smart man," Spike said, stepping out of the shadows behind him. He grabbed the man by the hair, bared his neck and sunk his fangs into him.   
  


"But not smart enough." Spike let the drained body fall to the ground and he looked over at Penny, his features returning to human. "And the lesson for tonight is: never trust anyone but yourself," he told her. He kicked the corpse. "He trusted you, now he's dead. Understand?"   
  


"Not even you?" Penny asked, a frown on her face.   
  


"Especially not me," Spike replied. "You never know, one day I might wake up with a taste for little girl, and bob's-yer-uncle, you're dead."   
  


Penny nodded, her expression serious. "Never trust anyone but myself. Right." She looked down at the body. "Can we take his wallet now? I want ice cream."   
  


Spike chuckled. "Go ahead, my bad little girl."   
  


Penny opened the man's suit coat and rooted in the inner pocket, extracting a black leather wallet. She then giggled when Spike picked her up with a spin before settling her tiny form on his hip. As they strode out of the alley, she opened up the wallet and looked at its contents.   
  


"He's got one of those Gold Cards, Papa," she said.   
  


"Oh really?" Spike said. "And what do you think we should do with it?"   
  


Penny wrinkled her brow as she thought, causing Spike's lips to curl up. Her short-cropped, black hair capped her head, highlighting her smooth Hispanic features. Regular eating had made her extended belly vanish, and with a good scrubbing and some new frocks, she made a beautiful little girl.   
  


A beautiful little girl that needed him.   
  


Every night through the end of February he'd told her he was probably going to eat her the next day. And every next day he'd started to like having her around more and more. His Bad Penny had slowly filled the emptiness that Drusilla had left inside of him, and as time wore on, she'd pulled him out of the drunken depression he'd been in because of his Black Queen.   
  


The night she'd called him Papa was the night he stopped telling her he was going to eat her.   
  


He'd sarcastically called himself Papa Spike a number of times when speaking to her, but never once had he thought she would take the title seriously. Then one day she'd had a nightmare, had crawled onto the mattress with him without his knowing, and was snuggled up in his half-embrace when he'd awoken that night. The first words out of her mouth when he asked her why she was there had been: "The monsters were after me, Papa, but you're scarier and meaner than them, so I knew you would protect me."   
  


The next night he'd delivered her to a beauty spa, courtesy of the of his dinner's Gold Card, and told them to clean Penny up. The smile she had for him and only him when she'd returned all gussied up had made him feel good again. In that instant, she became his new Princess. He'd protect her, cherish her, teach her, educate her and become the center of her world. Then, when he felt she was ready, he'd turn her and they would rule the night together, father and childe.   
  


"Let's go to the furniture store," Penny answered.   
  


"The furniture store?" Spike questioned. "Why there, luv?"   
  


"They have that neat chair that wiggles," she replied. "I want that."   
  


"Penny, we don't have electricity," he told her. "And I think you need to plug that into the outlet."   
  


"Oh."   
  


Spike took in her sad face and something twisted inside him. "Well, maybe it works fine without a plug," he said, trying to make her happy again. "It won't hurt us to go take a look."   
  


Penny's smile lit up her face -- and his heart.   
  


*****   
  


"Right here?" Spike asked his little girl.   
  


"A little more to the left," Penny instructed.   
  


"Here?" he repeated.   
  


"That's perfect, Papa," she said. "Now you put the dog table next to it and I'll put our light on it."   
  


"Yes, ma'am," Spike said, saluting her. She giggled infectiously, causing him to laugh, too. As ordered, he moved the metal dog statute with a flat, round piece of glass on its head into place, then took the lit hurricane lamp from Penny and set it on the odd end table. He stepped back and looked at the setup. "Not bad, pet."   
  


"Let's try it out," Penny suggested. She pointed to the chair. "Sit!"   
  


Spike gave her a look, but she stuck her nose in the air and pointed again. "I said sit!"   
  


"Bossy little chit you're turning into," Spike said, folding his arms over his chest. "What are you going to do if I don't sit?"   
  


Penny walked right up to him and tilted her head back to continue to look at him. Then, without a word of warning, she drew her tiny fist back and punched him right in the crotch. Spike gasped and bent to cup himself at her surprisingly painful blow to his privates, and she laughed loudly as she ran out of their flat, undoubtedly going back downstairs to her old flat where she knew he couldn't enter.

She returned a little while later with a book and a smile for him. "Did I do good, Papa?"   
  


"You did perfect, my little Bad Penny," Spike replied, sitting in the old-fashioned rocking chair that was positioned in front of the only non-boarded window in the abandoned flat. He had chosen the fifth floor to make his home when he'd returned to Los Angeles, and from his window he could see out over the razed buildings towards the heart of the city.   
  


Penny walked over to him and climbed up onto his lap. He settled his little girl back against him, and he lightly pushed with his toe to get them rocking. He rested his chin on the top of her head and the two looked out at the late city night, listening to the traffic, the blasting horns, the shouting and the occasional gunshot.   
  


"Papa?"   
  


"Yes, sweeting?"   
  


"How come you're a vampire?" Penny asked softly.   
  


"Because your Grandpoof made me into one," Spike replied. "A long time ago."   
  


"Did it hurt?" she inquired with curiosity.   
  


"Not really," he answered honestly. He smiled at the memories of his dark-haired Sire and ignored the pang in his heart at the thoughts of Drusilla. "Angelus, Dru and me were in the middle of shagging each other rotten when he turned me. One minute I was alive and burying myself in Dru as I shot my load, the next I was undead and burying my fangs into the meal Angelus left trussed up in the bedroom for me."   
  


"Papa, what's shagging?"   
  


"Something you're not going to do for a long, long time," Spike replied, taking the book from her. "Now, what are we reading tonight?"   
  


" _Harriett, the Spy_ ," Penny said.   
  


"Does anyone die?" Spike asked, opening the book.   
  


"No, but there lots of mean tricks that get played on Harriett, and her friends all get mad at her and make her cry," she answered.   
  


"Sounds lovely," he said. . "I bet it has a soddin' happy ending, though."   
  


"Yeah," Penny said. "But we can always make up a new one."   
  


"True," he agreed. He held the book up in front of them and dropped a kiss on top of Penny's head.   
  


"'My name is Harriett, and I'm a spy,'" she began, and they slowly rocked back and forth in the rocking chair as she continued to read well towards dawn.   
  


*****   
  


Spike glanced at the clock on the mantle, then down at the sleeping little girl beside him, her head on his thigh. He ran his hand lightly over her hair again and again in a gesture that was as soothing to him as it was to her. "How do you think they're faring?" he asked.   
  


Giles looked over at the vampire above the rim of his teacup. "Worried?"   
  


"More like bored," Spike said. "If Penny hadn't shown up, I'd probably be out kicking some major demon bollocks. I haven't been in a good fight in weeks."   
  


"I'm sure they'll be back soon," Giles said. He took a sip of his tea. "Now, back to Penny. What are you going to do now?"   
  


"What do you mean?" Spike asked.   
  


"Well, if I surmise correctly, your original plan was to-to turn Penny when she came of the desired age," Giles said.   
  


"Yeah, what of it?" Spike frowned at the man.   
  


"With your, er, implant it is rather improbable that you would be able to accomplish that goal," Giles said.   
  


"I hadn't thought about that," Spike said, more to himself than the ex-Watcher.   
  


"Yes, well, there are some splendid children's homes here in the states," Giles said, setting his teacup down onto its saucer. "I'm certain that with Penny's, ah, en-enthusiasm, she would be placed with a family-"   
  


"Hey, hold on there," Spike interrupted. "You got her all packed up and shipped off without even a 'by-your-leave.' Who said I was gettin' rid of the chit?"   
  


"Penny has little to no use to you now," Giles pointed out.   
  


Spike opened his mouth to answer, then closed it and frowned. He looked down at Penny's peaceful features. Was Giles right? He'd been all set to let her go forever even after the aborted suicide attempt.   
  


He could always get a fledgling to turn her for him, then stake the bloke. Or he could get the chosen vampire just to drain Penny and he could give her his own blood, which would make him more of her Sire. But would he be able to control her if he couldn't even bite a human himself?   
  


His musings were interrupted by the front door opening and Buffy, Angel and Riley tramping inside, arguing with each other. Spike quickly held up his hand and glared. "Shut up or you'll wake Penny," he hissed.   
  


"Why don't you go put her up in my bed, Spike," Giles suggested.   
  


Spike nodded and carefully scooped his little girl up in his arms. He scowled at the three now-silent people in Giles's living room, then headed for the stairs. Bloody loudmouths, he thought.   
  


Once in the ex-Watcher's bedroom, the blond vampire gently laid Penny down on the bed. He removed her shoes, setting them on the floor, and pulled half the comforter over her small body. He laid his hand on the top of her head for a moment, lovingly looking at her sleeping face, before he bent and kissed her brow.   
  


"Sleep well, baby," he whispered. "I missed you."   
  


"Love you, Papa," Penny murmured, snuggling further under the comforter.   
  


Spike smiled. "Love you back, my Bad Penny." He brushed a second kiss on her forehead, then straightened and headed back downstairs.   
  


"Alright, you annoying sods, let's keep our voices down, shall we?" Spike said to the others in the living room. He flopped back down onto the couch and propped one of his Doc Martens up on his knee. "Now, I know you're just _dying_ to say something, Angelus, so spit it out."   
  


"Who is she, Spike?" Angel said, ignoring the infantile jibe.   
  


"She's my daughter. I thought we've already been through that part," Spike said.   
  


Angel was on him in an instant, picking him up by the lapels of his duster. "You can't have children," the dark-haired vampire growled at Spike. "So cut the crap and tell me who she really is."   
  


"Let go of me, you nonce," Spike growled back, putting his hands up to shove Angel.   
  


"No fighting in Giles's house," Buffy snapped, stalking up next to them. "Angel, let go of Spike."   
  


Angel released Spike with a small push and the blond vampire fell back onto the couch. "Answers, Spike. Now," he said in a hard tone, staring down at Spike.   
  


"I told you, she's my daughter," Spike said irritably. "I have the bloody papers to prove it. Got 'em so I could enroll her at O.L."   
  


"Where are her real parents?" Angel asked.   
  


"Dead," Spike answered. "And no, I didn't kill 'em. Next question, Alex?"   
  


Angel's fist shot out and knocked Spike across the jaw. "Hey!" Riley exclaimed, rising to his feet from the desk chair he'd been sitting in.   
  


"Stay out of this," Angel said over his shoulder.   
  


"You don't talk to him like that!" Buffy exclaimed.   
  


"Buffy-" Angel began.   
  


"And don't take that tone of voice with me," Buffy said.   
  


"I've walked into an episode of _Passions_ ," Spike muttered. He glanced around. "Wonder where little Timmy is."   
  


"Listen, I don't know what's going on here, but getting angry with each other-" Riley started to say.   
  


"Shut up," Spike and Angel chimed at once.   
  


"Great, like father, like son," Buffy said sarcastically.   
  


"Suck me, Slayer," Spike growled.   
  


"Watch your mouth," Angel snapped at him.   
  


"Papa, can I come down?" Penny called down to them from the loft.   
  


Spike looked up and saw her standing by the railing, then glared at Buffy as he rose to his feet angrily. "I must've been yakking to myself when I said for everyone to _keep it quiet_!!"   
  


"I think quieting down is a good ide-"   
  


"Shut up, Riley!"   
  


Giles stood, walked into the kitchen and poured himself another cup of tea.

 

 **Part Three**   
  


_August 1999_   
  


"But Papa, I don't want to go to school," Penny said, trying to pull Spike back towards the car.   
  


"You're going to school and that's final," Spike told her. He gripped her small hand tighter and picked up the bag on the ground once again. "I want my bad girl to grow up smart, not dumb."   
  


"I'm already smart," Penny said.   
  


"Not the kind of smart I want you to be," he said.   
  


"But-"   
  


"Bad Penny Angelus, enough!" Spike exclaimed. He dropped the bag, lifted his little girl up under the arms and sat her down on the waist-high ledge beside the stairs leading up to the main building of the school. He bent his head slightly and met her dark eyes with his snapping blue ones.   
  


"Now, I don't want to hear another word about not going to school," he said in a low, hard tone. "I worked my arse off to make you my daughter to be able to enroll you here where you can learn and be safe at the same time. Maybe I shouldn't have bothered, eh? Maybe I shouldn't have made you my daughter-"   
  


"Papa, no," Penny said plaintively. "I want to be your daughter. I want you to be my real Papa."   
  


"Okay then," Spike said. "If I'm your legal father, what does that mean?"   
  


"It means that you love me?" Penny replied, hope shining in her eyes.   
  


"No, it means that when I tell you to do something, you do it," Spike said brisquely.   
  


"Oh."   
  


The small word was filled with sadness and Spike felt like a heel. He ground his teeth together and reminded himself that he was an evil, badass vampire who would not be cowed by a tiny little girl. "But it also means that I love you, too."   
  


Way to be strong, nancyboy, he thought. What was it about dark-haired, dark-eyed women that turned him into a weak-kneed wuss?   
  


Penny threw her arms around his neck and hugged him. "I love you, too, Papa," she whispered fiercely.   
  


"Oh hell," Spike grumbled, pulling his little girl closer for a tight hug, purposely inhaling her sweet scent.   
  


After a moment, he released her, cleared his throat and tried to give her a stern look. "Right. Now, tell me the rules again," he instructed gruffly.   
  


Penny took a deep breath and started reciting, "Never trust anyone but myself no matter what. Don't get into trouble during the day. Don't call Grandpoof unless it's a really big emergency because he doesn't know I exist and he'll be really, really surprised if I do call. Don't leave the school grounds. Get good grades. Don't let anyone push me around. Listen to everyone and make up my own mind. And everyone here is a human, not a mark," she smiled brightly, "but that doesn't mean I can't beat 'em up or take things from them."   
  


Spike chuckled. "Very good. Just don't get caught with the last bit there, luv."   
  


"I won't," she said solemnly.   
  


"Alright, moppet, enough of this chit-chat," he said, swinging her down from the ledge. "Let's get you inside and settled before the sun comes up and fries me."   
  


"Are you sure I can't stay with you instead?" Penny asked once more.   
  


Spike morphed and growled at her. His little girl screeched and ran up the steps to the front doors of the dormitory Penny was assigned to. Her laughter reached his ears a moment later and he smiled tenderly, his face returning to its human mask.   
  


He was going to miss her.   
  


******   
  


"Bad Penny Angelus, you get back in that bed now!" Spike yelled up at his little girl.   
  


"But Papa, I-"   
  


Spike's face shifted into its true, ridged countenance and he snarled, "If you're not asleep in the next two seconds..."   
  


Penny disappeared in a flash.   
  


"You're Hostile 17!" Riley exclaimed, staring in shock at Spike.   
  


"He's what?" Angel said, frowning at Riley.   
  


"Hostile 17!" Riley repeated, reaching for his stun gun.   
  


"Riley, leave Spike alone," Buffy said.   
  


"But he's Hostile 17!" Riley said again. "Do you know how long we've been searching for him?"   
  


Spike slid his human mask back on and glared at the soldierputz. "Since November 16 of last year when I escaped from your bloody laboratory. I've been meaning to torture you a bit for putting this thing in my head."   
  


"You're one of the Initiative people that put the implant in Spike?" Angel asked with slight menace in his voice as he stepped towards Riley. "I don't know whether I want to thank you or rip your head off."   
  


"Peaches, I'm touched. I didn't realized you cared," Spike said.   
  


"Don't push it, Spike," Angel growled.   
  


Buffy stepped in front of Angel and put his hand on his chest. "Angel, calm down. I don't like what they did to Spike, either. It's just wrong."   
  


Spike put his hand to his heart and smiled evilly at Riley. "Isn't it wonderful to know that you're loved?"   
  


"Can it, Impotent-boy," Buffy said, looking past Angel. "Mr. Pointy is just begging me to find an excuse to stake you."   
  


Spike's grin turned wicked and he gestured between Riley and Angel. "And which one of you two sods named your prick 'Mr. Pointy?'"   
  


Angel growled deeply, the low rumbling filling Giles's living room. Giles arched a single brow when he heard the threatening sound, watching from the kitchen as the events unfolded, a cup of gin with a splash of tea added in his hand.   
  


Riley's eyes bulged as he stared at Angel. "Buffy, get away from him," he said in a tight voice.   
  


Buffy glanced over her shoulder at Riley. "Why?"   
  


"Just trust me," Riley said, picking up his stun gun.   
  


All hell broke loose inside of ten seconds.   
  


"Riley, what are you doing?" Buffy asked as she turned around. Spike saw Angel instictively put his hands on her shoulders, pulling her back towards him as he started to step around her to put himself between Buffy and the threat.   
  


"Look out!" Riley exclaimed, his gun raised near his face in firing position.   
  


"Papa?"   
  


Riley's body snapped around at Penny's voice, the gun still raised, and Spike went nuts. He snarled, his face morphing into fangs and ridges, as he launched himself towards Riley, using the coffee table as a jumping block. He tackled the soldier and howled out in pain as the implant in his head reacted.   
  


Riley threw Spike off of him, rolled up to his knees and shot the blond vampire in the chest with the stun bolts. Angel was across the distance between them in a second, slamming his open hand up under the soldier's chin. The older vampire rammed Riley back against the wall divide next to the hallway, holding the light-haired man by the throat.   
  


Angel's eyes turned golden as his gaze burned into Riley's. "Don't you ever hurt him again," he snarled.   
  


"Papa! Papa!" Penny cried out as she came barreling down the stairs.   
  


Angel tightened his hold on Riley's throat, and he hissed, "I should kill you for daring to touch what's mine, including Buffy."   
  


"Angel, stop," Buffy said sternly as she crouched beside Spike. She quickly checked over him with an experienced eye. "Spike has just been paralyzed. He'll be fine in a few hours."   
  


Penny threw herself onto the floor beside Spike, shaking him. "Get up, Papa! Get up! Don't leave me like Mama did! Get up!"   
  


"Penny, sweetheart, he can't get up," Giles said after shooting a glare at Riley as he came out of the kitchen. He crouched beside her and touched her lightly on the back.   
  


"Papa has to get up! He has to!" Penny sobbed. She wrapped her small arms as far around Spike as she could and pressed her face to his chest. "He has to!"   
  


Spike wanted desperately to put his arms around his little girl, but he couldn't move to save his unlife. But when he could, the pillock'd better watch out. Somehow he was going to rip Riley a new one. He would be just as satisfied watching someone else do it for him as he would doing it himself.   
  


"Angel, come help me move Spike to the couch," Buffy instructed.   
  


Angel's face slid back into its human planes and he stared coldly at Riley for a moment longer before dropping the soldier. He snatched the stun gun from the floor, walked over to Buffy and handed it to her. "Destroy this."   
  


Buffy took the gun and bent the muzzle until it was touching the grip. She rolled her eyes as she handed it back to Angel. "Happy now?"   
  


"Yes," Angel grunted in reply. He turned and threw the gun back at Riley, who fumbled to catch it.   
  


"Boy, Buffy, I keep forgetting how strong you really are," Riley said, staring down at his bent weapon. "I'd hate to get you angry with me."   
  


"Riley, go home, okay?" Buffy said, as she and Angel lifted Spike off the ground after Giles pulled Penny back. "I'll talk to you tomorrow."   
  


"I'm not leaving until I get an explanation about why you've been hiding Hostile 17 and why you're friendly with this," Riley gestured at Angel, "vampire."   
  


Giles released Penny once Spike was situated on the couch, and the little girl scrambled over to the prone vampire. She knelt on the floor next to the couch, wrapped her arms around one of Spike's and laid her head down on his chest.   
  


Buffy met Angel's dark, concerned gaze for a moment after the older vampire raised his eyes from Spike and Penny, then she faced Riley. She took a deep breath and let it out quickly. "Riley, I'd like you to formally meet Angel, my ex-"   
  


"Lover," Angel finished in a possessive tone.   
  


Riley's mouth dropped open. "You had sex with a vampire!"   
  


The Slayer looked over at Angel and blushed. Flustered, she continued. "Angel isn't like other vampires. He has a soul."   
  


"So that means what? He's harmless like Hostile 17 there?" Riley rubbed his throat. "I don't think so."   
  


"It means he's like me," Buffy said. "Not quite human."   
  


"Don't say that, Buffy," Angel told her quickly. "You're one hundred percent human and I haven't been in...," he paused, a pained expression flickering across his features, "...a long time."   
  


Spike started playing the violin in his mind.   
  


"All that's important is that Angel is good," Buffy said to Riley. "A little overprotective, maybe, but good."   
  


Giles cleared his throat. "May I suggest that we continue this tomorrow? It is obvious that Spike will be unable to answer any more questions for awhile."   
  


"Good idea, Giles," Buffy said. "Riley, let's go. I'll answer whatever else you want to know about on the walk back to campus."   
  


"Sir." Riley nodded in a polite goodbye to Giles. He shot a wary glance at Angel as he walked past the vampire towards the door.   
  


"I'll see you tomorrow, Giles," Buffy said to her mentor. She turned to Angel. "Will you be here?"   
  


"Yes," Angel replied.   
  


"Then I'll see you, too." Buffy gave him a small, sincere smile. "Goodnight."   
  


"Goodnight, Buffy," Angel said softly.   
  


Spike made the best gagging noises that he could. Penny raised her head. "Papa?"   
  


Buffy left with Riley as Angel crouched down beside Penny. "Penny, your," he hesitated for a fraction of a second before continuing, "father is okay. He just needs to sleep, like you should be doing."   
  


"Do I hafta?" Penny said.   
  


Angel raised his gaze to Spike. Spike tried to convey to his Sire with his eyes that he didn't want Penny to leave his side. Not when he'd come close to having his little girl shot with electricity. If there were enough volts to paralyze a vampire, he didn't want to know what it would do to a seven-year-old, human girl.   
  


"How about if I scoot Spike over so you can sleep here, too?" Angel asked her in a soft tone. "Would that be okay?"   
  


Penny nodded enthusiastically. Angel rose and moved to the head of the couch. He put his hands under Spike's shoulders and, just before he shifted the blond vampire, bent his head to whisper in the younger man's ear, "You are an idiot."   
  


Spike ignored his Sire, instead concentrating on the tiny moppet who climbed up over him and slid into the hole made between his body and the back of the couch. Penny settled against his side, pillowing her dark head against his chest, her small fingers clenching around the material on the front of his tee-shirt. A blanket descended over both of them, courtesy of Giles.   
  


"You'll be okay with him here?" Angel asked Giles.   
  


"Yes," Giles replied. "Spike may be annoying, but he is harmless. He stayed with me for a bit when he first came to us for assistance."   
  


Chained up in the bathtub, Spike thought scornfully.   
  


"I'll be up at the mansion if you need me," Angel said, heading for the door.   
  


"Goodnight, Angel," Giles said.   
  


"Goodnight," Angel said in kind. "I'll return tomorrow afternoon so we can resolve this."   
  


"Very well," Giles said. Angel left and the ex-Watcher looked down at the pair on the couch. He shook his head, then shut off the light.   
  


Spike heard Giles's footsteps as he retreated upstairs. With a mental sigh, the blond vampire closed his eyes -- an action he _could_ do -- and fell to sleep listening to the soft sounds of Penny's steady breathing.   
  
  
  


**Part Four**   
  


_October 1999_   
  


"Papa, hi!" Penny's happy voice came to Spike over the phone line.   
  


"Hello, precious," Spike said into the receiver.   
  


"Did you find it?" Penny asked almost immediately.   
  


"Yes, I found the Gem of Amara," he replied, frowning in disgust at the debacle surrounding the gem.   
  


"Yay! Now we can go to the beach and destroy other people's sandcastles and find clams and pry them open so they shrivel up like raisins and you can pretend to be a shark and tear people into pieces that wash up on the beach like that girl's hand in _Jaws_ , which I watched on the cook's television last week after I stole it from Sister Jennifer's movie shelf and I almost got caught, but you told me to always have two ways to escape from a room, which I did, so I escaped before Sister Louisa saw me."   
  


Spike shook his head at the number of words his little girl managed to spit out in one breath. When she paused to take another gulp of air, he spoke up quickly. "Penny, I have a some bloody rotten news."   
  


"What is it, Papa?" Penny asked with worry. "Aren't you going to take me to the beach?"   
  


"We can still go to the beach, but it's going to have to be at night," Spike said, with evident disappointment. "I don't have the gem anymore."   
  


"Why?"   
  


Spike's heart twisted in pain at the sadness in her voice. Anger at the circumstances of his losing the gem caused his reply to come out harsher than he meant. "Because I don't, Penny, that's why. Which means we aren't going to go to the beach or the park or the zoo or any of the other soddin' places I wanted to take you during the day. And I'd appreciate it if you never brought up that effin' gem again."   
  


"O-okay," Penny said in a tiny voice. "I won't."   
  


"Good," Spike said. He took a purposeful breath and let it out quickly. "Now, tell me about your classes. Are you getting high marks?"   
  


"Yes," Penny replied.   
  


"Making new friends?" he asked.   
  


"Yes," she said.   
  


"Kill anyone yet?"   
  


"No."   
  


"Well, you're still young." Penny giggled and Spike felt his anger slipping away. He smiled, glanced at his stolen Rolex, and said, "How 'bout you an' me head out to the beach tonight? Maybe someone will have gotten stuck in the riptide and we can watch 'em drown."   
  


"Can we feed fizzies to the seagulls and watch them explode, too?"   
  


Spike laughed. "Anything you want, my bad little girl," he told her. "I'll be by in three-quarters of an hour to fetch you."   
  


"'K," Penny said. "Bye, Papa. Love you."   
  


"Love you back, squirt," Spike said. Then, he hung up the phone, a smile still etched across his features, and sauntered back out into the night.   
  
  
  


*****   
  
  
  


"You both know that Dru..."   
  


"Found dryer lint more exciting than you?" Buffy suggested caustically.   
  


Spike glared at her. "Do you want me to explain or not?"   
  


"Buffy," Angel said softly in warning, reaching over to put his hand on her wrist. He removed his hand quickly, as if it'd been burned.   
  


Spike practically saw the band of electricity that connected Buffy and Angel when the two met each other's eyes. He smirked when Angel purposely covered Buffy's hand with his larger one. Bye-bye Commando-poof, Spike thought.   
  


The three were sitting in Giles's courtyard, the late afternoon sun low enough in the sky to cast the open area in shadows. Penny was inside with Giles, eating an early dinner so that Spike could take her out around what little town there was after the sun set.   
  


"Go ahead, Spike," Angel prompted, returning his gaze to the younger vampire.   
  


"Right. Well, after my wonderful success in getting Dru back, I returned to LA," Spike said. "I was living in this condemned piss-hole in the barrio, working my way through as much alcohol as I could. Bad Penny just popped up one day and wouldn't leave." He shrugged. "After a bit, I got kind of used to having her around."   
  


"And her parents?" Angel asked.   
  


"I think her mum o.d.'d," Spike replied. "She was dead before I even knew Penny existed. No one ever came to claim the little chit and when I went diggin' up her past to make her my legal daughter, I found out she doesn't have any other blood relatives."   
  


"So you really are her legal father? Government legal?" Buffy said.   
  


Spike nodded. "But under the British government, seein' as I'm not a bloody Yank. Got us a couple of Green Cards, too, although they're not on the complete up-and-up."   
  


"I take it your idea was to wait until Penny was about eighteen or nineteen, then turn her?" Angel surmised.   
  


"Yeah," Spike replied. "I enrolled her over at O.L.P.H. outside of LA where she could get an education. Plus, it bein' a Catholic boarding school, she'd be safer there than pretty much anywhere. Another ten years down the line, she'd graduate, I'd turn her and we'd go terrorize the world together."   
  


"Oedipus much?"   
  


Spike frowned at Buffy. "What?"   
  


"Never mind. Wrong gender, anyway," Buffy told him, shaking her head.   
  


"What are you going to do now?" Angel asked, continuing the conversation.   
  


"You mean because of the soddin' implant in my head?" Spike said. Angel nodded and Spike shrugged again. "Don't know, mate. If I can get the bloody Initiative pricks to fix me, it won't be a problem."   
  


"And if not?"   
  


"I'll think of something. You never know, ten years is a lot of time," Spike said. He smacked his hands down on the table and stood. "Any more questions? Penny and I got some quality catching-up time to get to."   
  


"I have one more," Angel said. He gave his Childe a questioning lift of his brow. "William Spike Angelus? Bad Penny Angelus? Angel Angelus?"   
  


Spike gave Angel a cocky grin. "What did you expect, _daddy_?"   
  
  
  
  
  


**Epilogue**   
  


_June 2017_   
  


"...Carolyn Anderson...Jennifer Andrews...Penny Angelus..."   
  


Spike smiled widely, clapping hard enough to make his hands hurt, as Penny climbed up on stage and accepted her diploma. The still small, Hispanic girl with sparkling black eyes and a short cap of dark hair waved to him from the stage as she made her way down the opposite side to retake her seat.   
  


"That's my girl," he said proudly.   
  


"That she is, Spike," Angel said from his seat beside the blond vampire.   
  


"Did Penny decide where she was going to college yet?" Buffy asked, leaning forward to speak past Angel.   
  


"She's narrowed it down to either some small school in the middle of a bloody cornfield in Indiana or Berkley," Spike replied. "According to her, they both have Criminal Psychology programs that are the bloody bollocks." He glanced down at the rows of graduating high school students below. "What about Myra?"   
  


"Texas A&M, UNLV or the American University in Cairo, Egypt," Angel said. "Although I think the last one she chose just because she was mad." He frowned. "At least, I hope."   
  


"Shh! She's up next!" Buffy scolded.   
  


Spike and Angel turned their attention back to the stage as a small, slender, Hispanic girl climbed the steps, her long black hair brushing the middle of her red graduation gown. Out of the corner of his eye, Spike saw his best friend of five years break out in a huge smile as Angel started to clap already.   
  


Who would have figured that ten years ago he had been trying to explain how he had a daughter to two semi-enemies who loved each other, but forced themselves to stay apart?, Spike thought, a genuine smile crossing his lips as he watched Angel's enthusiasm. It was funny how unlife changed over time. Those same two semi-enemies were now his best friends, together in every sense of the word, and they had followed in _his_ footsteps when it came to the next stage in their lives.   
  


Yes, Spike thought, returning his eyes to the stage. It was funny how unlife was forever changing over time.   
  


"...Daphne Stevens...Georgia Suders...Myra Summers-Angelus..."   
  
  
  
  
  


**End**


End file.
